


Give and Take

by EntreNous



Category: Bones (TV)
Genre: Gen, Implied Relationships, Relationship Advice, Season/Series 01, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-10-12
Updated: 2005-10-12
Packaged: 2017-11-27 07:15:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/659309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EntreNous/pseuds/EntreNous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zack goes on a fact finding-mission, but he just might have some information that Booth wants.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Give and Take

**Author's Note:**

> Written for blueswan9, who requested a fic that expanded on Zack's belief in Booth's ways with women. Implied Seeley Booth/Temperance Brennan UST.

“So,” Zack said as he sidled up behind Booth at the counter. “I was thinking about our talk last week, and --”

“Are we already forgetting how this is my part of Sid’s place?” Booth commented without turning. He spooned up some of the soup in front of him and then winced as the hot liquid evidently burned his tongue.

“But Dr. Brennan sat here with you just the other day,” Zack said.

“That’s different,” Booth replied.

Zack tilted his head to the side. “You don’t have the same policy as Dr. Goodman, do you? That you’ll only talk to PhDs?”

Booth laughed in an obvious dismissal of that principle. 

“The thing is, I know you said I couldn’t ask you about sexual _positions_ ,” Zack continued as he eased onto one of the stools, coke in hand. “But you didn’t say anything about sensual _pleasure_. So what I wanted to know is --”

“Look, kid,” Booth interrupted him. “I don’t have time for this.”

“I’m just going to the best source available,” Zack argued quickly. “That’s what all my advisors say to do in my dissertation work. I don’t see why a different strategy would apply here. When I consulted the others, everyone said that you were the best.”

“Well,” Booth said. He cupped his bowl of soup and gave it a quarter-turn on the counter. “Everyone?”

“Jack said I should talk to someone earthy,” Zack clarified. “You’re the earthiest person that we all know, so I’m positive that you’re who he had in mind. And Angela said this was a guy thing, in a kind of a way that I could tell she didn’t mean Jack or Dr. Goodman. Besides, Angela thinks you have buckets of sexual confidence, so that means she believes that you’ve had ample practice pleasing a woman.”

Booth eyed him warily. It was hard to tell if he was maybe reconsidering his earlier proposal to shoot Zack between the eyes. 

Then he said softly, “Everyone, huh?” And his expression became . . . Zack didn’t know how to describe it other than with a word his undergraduate thesis advisor had used when talking about the attitudes of the most ambitious and successful scientific investigators: Cocksure. 

“Oh, well, everyone -- you should know that I didn’t ask Dr. Brennan,” Zack hastened to add. It was only appropriate, after all, to present his survey sample accurately. 

And just like that, Booth’s confident expression flattened out into a grimly composed blank. 

“Only because I didn’t think her advice would be much help,” Zack said. “Angela told us that it’s been a while for her. It’s very possible, however, that Dr. Brennan agrees with the others regarding your sexual prowess.”

“Really?” Booth asked with interest. He shifted and propped one of his long legs against the footrest of Zack’s stool. “So it’s been a while -- how long?”

“Angela said something about powering a small Midwestern --” Zack stopped abruptly. “Wait a minute. This is my fact-finding mission, not yours.”

Booth sighed heavily. “What is it that you people just don’t get about give and take?”

“What?” Zack asked. “Give and take -- you mean as in the exchange of sensual pleasure?” He patted his pockets down, but he didn’t have the small notebook that he typically carried with him when he was in research meetings.

“I mean as in information,” Booth said, clearly aggrieved. “Maybe I do know something that could help you. Well, hey, maybe I think you know something that could help me. So why would you want to ruin your chances of finding out what you’re after? Why would you want to block me from things you know about?”

“I don’t know the answer to that,” Zack said. “But I do know that Dr. Brennan is my boss, and that she wouldn’t like me talking about her sexual history with you.”

“How come?” Booth asked casually, grabbing a crispy noodle from a bowl on the bar and munching it thoughtfully. 

“Well, because she wouldn’t want you to focus on topics that are sensitive for her,” Zack told him patiently. “She wants to be treated as an equal, as your partner -- and I think it’s pretty big of her, considering that she’s much smarter than you.”

Booth grunted, but he didn’t seem completely put out. 

“Maybe I would tell you more if she was better equipped in those areas,” Zack went on defensively. “If she hadn’t lacked intimate partners for some time, and if her previous relationship hadn’t ended because her boyfriend told her she was emotionally cold, I don’t think that providing the background of her recent experiences with intercourse and petting would be as much of an issue.”

“Petting?” Booth asked incredulously. “What, did they take you out of some bomb-shelter that was sealed off in the fifties?”

“No,” Zack said in confusion. “They recruited me from Yale.” 

Booth was silent for a moment. Then he crumpled his napkin into a ball. “She’s not emotionally cold.”

“What?” Zack asked.

“Her boyfriend,” Booth said slowly. “He was wrong. Bones -- she’s not cold. She’s awkward with the basics of the meet and greet, sure; she’s terrible with people when tensions are running high, lots of times. But she’s not some kind of cold fish. You can see it when she works, the passion that she has about what she does, the intensity she’s capable of when she’s sure that she’s right. The guy who thought that -- well, he’s someone who gives up on a good thing too easily.”

“Hmmm,” Zack said in a non-committal fashion. He was beginning to hope that if he just sat still that Booth would move on from the subject of Dr. Brennan’s work ethic to the mysteries of arousing the female body. 

Booth took a sip of water and glanced towards the mirror behind the bottles of alcohol across from them. “If someone could just figure out how to connect with her, how to tap into that intensity--”

“Angela said that about your sexual confidence,” Zack offered. “That she’d like to tap that.”

“Angela is a very interesting woman,” Booth allowed. 

A few moments passed. Zack gulped more of his coke and waited for Booth to continue, but he didn’t. 

“So if you were planning to pleasure, say, _Angela_ sexually,” Zack prodded. “Maybe you might start with . . .”

“I think I’d start with getting to know her a little more,” Booth said. There was a hint of a smile on his face as he stood and eased his jacket onto his shoulders. He gave Zack a quick nod and then strode purposefully towards the door. 

The sound of a woman snorting made Zack turn, and he nearly jumped from his stool when he realized that Angela had at some point taken the seat adjacent to his.

“F.Y.I.,” she said. “Temperance is going to kill you _dead_ when she finds out that you told Booth all about her ex.” She gave him a wide grin, and slid off the stool, walking towards their customary booth with a sure sway of hips. 

“How can she kill me dead?” Zack asked as he stumbled in his hurry to follow her. “Isn’t that the definition of killing someone, that the person is dead at the end of the process? Angela? What does that even mean?”


End file.
